Keep The Fires Burning tells the tale of Anne-Lotte’s birthplace, the sweet village of Nieuwkoop in Holland.

It’s in the province of South Holland, which is the actual Holland part of the Netherlands. She was raised near the wetlands, as Nieuwkoop is situated 6-meter below sea level. No wonder she is an Aquarius! She has always been surrounded by water.

Broken wagonwheel

The first written mention of the village dates back 750 years ago. According to a legend, Nieuwkoop was founded by a group of travellers in the 12th century. The wheel of their cart broke and they couldn’t travel any further. The village however was formed by a community of farmers, peat cutters and blacksmiths. By extracting the peat, they created the lakes and meadows. That’s how the turf became a home. And the turf kept them warm and dry.

Anvils

The blacksmiths have put their mark on the story of Nieuwkoop. The first forges at home date back to medieval times. The demand for forgings was really high in Amsterdam. In NIeuwkoop, lots of cutting blades, pickaxes, fishing equipment and tools for peat cutters were produced. This came to a high in the 18th and 19th century, when Nieuwkoop was the city of anvils.

Forging festival

The forging history of Nieuwkoop was celebrated in a forging festival in 2019 at the village square. On the morning of the festival, we finished the song Keep The Fires Burning by adding a chorus in Dutch for the people to sing along. Some of the blacksmiths played along on their anvils. It was really magic. Although you can’t hear the anvils on the album version of the song. But the brilliant box solo by Dave Munnelly makes up for that one!

Hometown

The idea of the song is to show that our hometown, that the place where we come from, isn’t that different from an Irish town. And that you can always come back to your hometown. Where they keep the fires burning…